Re: Help! Ammonia and Nitrite too high!
#7
Hi Violet,
That's my point - we haven't put any fish in yet! No fish, so no waste from them, nothing else added except the Fresh Start but we now have loads of ammonia where last week we had none!!
We purchased a Hozelock Easyclear 3000 (after a lot of research) which was highly recommended by other users. Hozelock themselves say 'Introduce fish slowly over first few weeks, up to 20% of the maximum recommended level increasing to 50% after six months'. But the water centre we bought the filter/pump from, told us we could put fish in after approximately two weeks (providing the water tests were all ok which obviously they are not). We also asked our local 'Hertfordshire Fisheries', 'World of Water', 'Maidenhead Aquatics' and 'Wildwoods' for their advice on this and they all said the same. Most internet sites checked also said roughly the same.
Volume of the pond is 361 gals or 1644 litres.
Hi Suey2,
It's a raised pond made with sleepers (although half of it is below ground level for winter protection) with a buytl liner with underlay and is rectangular. 80.5" long by 43" wide by 30" deep. The slightly irregular length and width were dictated by the size of our small garden. Depth was okayed by the above fish/water centres as only planning to have Sarasa Comets and Shubunkins not Koi.
Plantwise, we currently have a small Walter Pagel water lily, several oxygenating plants - Hottonia Palustris, Callatriche Verna, Scirpus Cernuus and several bunches of Myriophyllum Spicatum (I think, no label) together with three water hyacinths, a medium sized Pontederia Cordata, and a Zantedeschia Aethiopoca. We are also thinking of adding an Umbrella plant if the cat stops eating it! All the potted plants are in the medium they were purchased in and we were told they didn't need replanting for the foreseeable future but we will use Aquatic Soil when they do.
All dead foilage is removed immediately and there are no leaves going in the pond from any garden plants or trees in the immediate area.
Phew! :O) Hope this extra info helps. Thanks to you both for your advice. Any further help will be most appreciated.